Making 007: Legends, Pt. 3 – From Concept to Reality

In our final behind-the-scenes featurette, Eurocom's Rob Matthews details taking the game's concept and making it a reality.

Welcome to our three-part series chronicling the development of 007: Legends, the upcoming James Bond game developed by Eurocom and published by Activision. 007: Legends is a bit different than past Bond video games; instead of focusing on just one film or original adventure, 007: Legends cherry-picks six classic Bond missions from the 50-year cinematic history of the character and combines them all into one high-octane thrill ride.

So to shed some light on the development process for 007: Legends, we enlisted the help of Eurocom’s Project Manager, Rob Matthews, to take the microphone and detail what this game is all about.

If you're interested in reading Part One, discussing the genesis of the game, click here.

If you're interested in reading Part Two, discussing the missions that were selected, click here.

Now on to Part Three, our final part, detailing the process of making this game a reality.

Take it away, Rob…

Once the six movies featured in 007 Legends had been chosen, we collaborated with veteran Bond writer Bruce Feirstein to write a screenplay for each movie adaptation. Each script featured the key story moments and described the journey of the player through the mission. The scripts were then reviewed and approved by Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli of EON Productions.

One question remained unanswered. How do we tie all of these stories together? The next James Bond film, SKYFALL, would provide us with the answer. In late 2011, we were fortunate enough to see some early pre-visualization from SKYFALL and there is an event early in the movie which provided us with an over-arching wrapper to connect all of our stories under one, cohesive narrative.

Pam Bouvier character model

The task of visualizing 007 Legends fell to a team of highly-talented concept artists. Their brief was to be respectful to the original films, carrying over costume designs, locations and vehicles, but give them a mild update where necessary so that all six films featured in 007 Legends can sit alongside each other in a contemporary timeframe, which was an important detail that allowed us to feature Daniel Craig throughout and also gives him access to all the great technology we have available today.

Bringing the stories to life fell upon the shoulders of a highly talented cast of over sixty actors who provided the voices, likenesses and motion performances of the characters in the game. Alongside stellar names such as Daniel Craig and Dame Judy Dench, 007 Legends also brought back a number of actors from the original films, including Carey Lowell, who played Pam Bouvier in Licence to Kill, Toby Stephens, who played Gustav Graves in Die Another Day and Naomie Harris, who plays Eve in the forthcoming SKYFALL.

But, alongside the high-profile names, we also assembled a hugely talented supporting cast who were crucial to the production – Tim Watson as Auric Goldfinger, Demetri Goritsas as Felix Leiter, Jane Perry as Dr. Holly Goodhead, Nicola Walker as Tracy and Natasha Little as Pussy Galore, to name but a few.

Felix Leiter character model

On a personal level, it has been a fantastic experience and privilege to work with all of these actors. The highlight of the project for me was working with Michael Lonsdale, who was an absolute gentlemen – charming, hard-working and generous with his time. During the voice-over sessions, Michael was kind enough to reminisce about his experiences filming the original Moonraker, recalling the elaborate sets designed by Sir Ken Adam, the parties laid on by Cubby Broccoli for the cast, crew and their families, and his friendship with Richard Kiel, who played Jaws in the original movie.

As the project draws to a close, it is worth noting that 007 Legends would not exist without the fantastic efforts of a highly-talented team working back at our studio in Derby and our partners at Activision and EON Productions. All due credit should be given to the army of dedicated artists, designers, programmers, musicians, animators, production staff and their supportive families who have been hard at work, bringing the world of 007 Legends to life.